The Center for Investigating Healthy Minds

Our Facility

The CIHM is currently building its state-of-the-art facility, a project representing the vision of Dr. Davidson and his collaborators. The new facility will merge science and research with meditation and mindfulness, and provide researchers with a place of learning and discovery. Within the facility is space for students, researchers and staff, but its centerpiece will be the intimate, thoughtfully-designed meditation space. Often referred to as the Center’s sacred space, this meditation room provides a truly unique and powerful research core. Partnering with the UW Waisman Center and the Keck brain imaging lab, researchers and scientists will have a multitude of technological and equipment advantages, and the addition of meditation space provides the essential missing link in the Center’s contemplative neuroscience research.

Research

The CIHM has assembled an outstanding team of researchers, poised to become the world leaders in contemplative neuroscience. This team is exploring the science behind how contemplative practices alter and transform the mind and is devoted to learning how healthy qualities of mind develop. The societal benefits of this research are dramatically powerful, and can’t be understated. As our research team develops new research paths and questions, funding for these inquiries will be essential. It is imperative to match, if not exceed, the momentum of our ideas with the resources for research and implementation.

Faculty and staff

The CIHM is highly interdisciplinary, including a diverse mix of scientists and scholars, all with a passion in and knowledge for contemplative neuroscience. To attract the best and brightest to our team, the Center hopes to endow three professorships in the areas of humanities and science, with one additional remaining uncommitted for visiting faculty. These professorships will foster a strong leadership base for the CIHM, and can contribute tremendous value in creating a succession plan beyond the active work life of Dr. Davidson. Parallel with its research, the Center must also maintain a robust operational structure for outreach, development and scientific activities. While these are not strictly scientific posts, this team is essential to educate, communicate and promote the mission and research of the Center.

Outreach in the community

Mindfulness program for educators: A key part of the CIHM mission is community outreach through translational research. In February 2009, we launched our first community outreach program, a mindfulness program designed specifically for educators. The participants in this initial project were teachers in the Waisman Center Early Childhood program. We are currently assessing the impact of this training project on teacher characteristics and classroom environment.

Mindfulness program for children: In 2010, the CIHM will launch an exciting outreach initiative focused on contemplative and mindfulness training and teaching in the K-12 school environment. The CIHM anticipates this to be one of the most comprehensive translational research programs of its kind, and believes it can lead the global discussion of mindfulness and its positive impact on children. This program would collaborate with educators and administrators on the creation of curriculum and assessment tools - both behavioral and biological - specifically targeting characteristics that might be transformed through contemplative training.